Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.18.3–II.7.18.4

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 223 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.18.3–II.7.18.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 442

Ἀγαθὰ κακὰ καὶ ἀδιάφορα

II.7.18.3

Τοῦτο δὲ μέγιστον ὂν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τελειότατον ἐκ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων ὑπηρετεῖσθαι. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ συμβαλλόμενα πρὸς αὐτὸ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὁμολογουμένως χρὴ λέγειν, τὰ δ’ ἐναντιούμενα ⟨αὐτῷ τῶν κακῶν, τὰ δὲ μήτε συμβαλλόμενα μήτε ἐναντιούμενα⟩ οὔτε τῶν ἀγαθῶν οὔτε ⟨τῶν⟩ κακῶν, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀδιαφόρων. Οὐ πᾶσαν δὲ καλὴν πρᾶξιν εὐδαιμονικὴν ὑπάρχειν.

Τελεία καὶ ἀτελὴς ἀρετή

II.7.18.4

‘Τελείας’ δ’ εἶπον ἀρετῆς χρῆσιν τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν, ὅτι τῶν ἀρετῶν τὰς μὲν ἔλεγον εἶναι τελείας, τὰς δὲ ἀτελεῖς· τελείας μὲν τήν τε δικαιοσύνην καὶ τὴν καλοκἀγαθίαν· ἀτελεῖς δὲ τὴν εὐφυΐαν καὶ τὴν προκοπήν· τῷ δὲ τελείῳ τὸ τέλειον ἁρμόττειν. Τέλος οὖν εἶναι τῆς τοιαύτης ἀρετῆς ἐνέργειαν, ἧς οὐθὲν ἄπεστι μέρος.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 443

Goods Evils and Indifferents

II.7.18.3

This, being the greatest and most complete of goods, is served by all the others. For one must admittedly count the things that contribute to it among goods, and those that oppose ⟨it among evils; things that neither contribute nor oppose⟩ belong neither among goods nor among evils, but among indifferents.⁵⁸⁴ Yet not every noble action belongs to happiness.⁵⁸⁵

Complete and Incomplete Virtue

II.7.18.4

They called happiness the exercise of “complete” virtue because they said that some virtues are complete and others incomplete. Complete are justice and nobility and goodness; incomplete are natural aptitude and progress.⁵⁸⁶ What is complete fits what is complete. The end, therefore, is the activity of virtue of such a kind that no part of it is missing.⁵⁸⁷

584.The long supplement αὐτῷ τῶν κακῶν … ἐναντιούμενα is printed by Wachsmuth from Spengel and remains bracketed in both languages. The separately supplied τῶν is an article required by the Greek construction; its function is absorbed into “among evils.” The classification is relative to contribution to or opposition to the end. The term indifferent therefore occurs within this Peripatetic account, without importing the Stoic restriction of good to virtue.

585.Εὐδαιμονικήν means belonging to or productive of happiness. The negative qualifies “every”: the passage does not deny the nobility of an action that fails to make a life happy. The distinction becomes explicit in the subsequent examples of virtuous conduct amid misfortune and mistreatment.

586.Καλοκἀγαθία combines the noble and the good in one term, rendered “nobility and goodness.” Εὐφυΐα is natural aptitude or good natural endowment, and προκοπή progress. Both are explicitly placed among incomplete virtues in this account. Wachsmuth observes that progress is Stoic terminology also taken up by Peripatetics; the anthology’s terminology should not be flattened into one school’s definitions.

587.The repeated τέλειος is complete in the sense of lacking no constituent part. The final relative clause describes the virtue whose activity is the end. This explains the first qualification in the initial definition of happiness; it does not equate an undeveloped aptitude or mere progress with the complete exercise of virtue.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.